Phillips de Pury - Fall Auction 2011

Barnaby Furnas

Flood (Red Sea), 2006

£150,000-250,000

Sold £169,250

Phillips de Pury

October 12th - 13th

Contemporary Art Auction

This weekend has been colored by Phillips de Pury's presentation of what will be auctioned at the evening sale the 12th and the day show the 13th of October. I ended up going to both the preview night on Thursday and the brunch Sunday. It was a rather calm atmosphere at both days, with enjoyable conversations and bubbly drinks.

Bellow are some of the highlights. Later this week I will add what each piece actually sold for, but here are the estimated sale prizes.

Andreas Gursky, 

Copan, 2002

£180,000-250,000

Sold £ 217,500

Tim Noble & Sue Webster

Toxic Schizophrenia, 1997

£180,000 - 250,000

£229,250

George Condo 

Cave Painting (2008) (Insert)

£300,000 - 500,000

George Condo is represented with 5 works at this Auction, the New Yorker is known for his dark and humorous portraits, dripping with madness...

Liu Xiaocheng

Breath (22), 2007

£5,000 - 7,000

In the middle of all the grand colors and statements I really fell for this understated painting. It portrays a protest in a subtle poetic and captivating way.

John Bock

Der Ultimate Rendite Rezipenten Aufbau bei Gleichzeitiger

futterung der modderMachtMasse, (2002)

£25,000 - 30,000

This piece makes you pause because of it's humoristic appeal. After seeing the work by John Bock we began talking about our expectations of seeing more humor being used in the future. Humor in Art as a counter act to the dreadfulness of decline.

Damien Hirst

Observation - The Crown of Justice (2006)

£700,000 - 1,000,000

£780,450

No major Contemporary Auction without a Damien Hirst.... this piece is quite stunning, looking closely you will notice one of his trademarks - the butterflies.

Cecily Brown

Park, 2004

£400,000 - 600,000

Sold £421,250

Don't pass on a Cecily Brown painting. They are a lot more intricate than what at first is captured by your eyes. Cecily Brown is perhaps one of the greatest paid female painters today, coming from a great knowledge of the History of paintings. Cecily Brown takes her inspiration from Impressionists to Abstract Expressionists, in-between, before and after... the turn she makes can often be seen as quite erotic, just stop and look for a little while.

Johannes Kahrs

Eifer-sucht (Jealousy), 1995

£120,000 - 180,000

John Korner 

Lolland (2004)

£8,000 - 12,000

Sold £12,500

Desiree Dolron

Xterior (Birgitte) (2001)

£40,000 - 50,000

Sold £49,250

Gilbert & George

Heart (2004)

£100,000 - 150,000

Absolutely genius!! The two collaborators has here created a photo with two of their heads, as turned into three, as turned into a scary ghost. It all depends on how you see the image first. I only saw the three faces at first, but when I came back home and glanced at the photos that I had taken, I reacted by saying out loud "Wow" this is spooky. I was glad I could come back to the Sunday brunch and have a second look before it sells, to what I will say is a fortunate future owner.

Christian Ward

Black Hut, 2005

£7,000-9,000

Sold £688

Susanne Kuhn

Kinderzimmer (2006)

£15,000-20,000

Sold £18,750

Robert Motherwell

Frontier No. 12 (1958)

£150,000 - 200,000

Marc Quinn

Red Lantern Cove (2010)

£85,000 - 120,000

£91,250

Jake and Dinos Chapman

I wanted to say "I've Missed You" (2008)

£40,000 - 60,000

Paula Rego

The Servant (1993-94)

£500,000 - 700,000

Another of the great selling female painters is Paula Rego. Behind her figurative work there is often a story of repression and violence. Here with the pastel painting "The Servant" she is for sure hitting me in the gut as well.

Yang Shaobin

Untitled No.15 (2000)

£120,000-180,000

£ 313, 250

Gunther Uecker

Horse-Children in crisis (1994)

£30,000 - 40,000

Jeff Koons

Seal Walrus Trashcans (2003-09)

£2,000,000 - 3,000,000

£2,113,250

Ugo Rondinone

Everything Gets Lighter Everyone is Light, 2004

£120,000 - 180,000

I will end the "walk through" with this lyrical title that Ugo Rondinone gave his spiritual tree;

"Everything Gets Lighter Everyone is Light"

With Love

Kristin

Carte Blanche

Maurizio Cattelan

Stephanie, 2003

Est. $1,500,000- $2,000,000
Sold At: 2,434,500

It has been an incredibly exciting weekend. Friday we were invited to the Studio of Claes Oldenburg, where he and his daughter showed us around his Soho Townhouse, and kindly let us peak at his past and future models for his projects.

On Saturday I first went to Bonham Auction house where Tate Doherty (head of Contemporary) talked about the Auction market. It is a packed Art Auction week in New York City, with all the big Auction houses holding Contemporary Art Auctions. Only very potential buyers get to attend these events, you must show proof of liquid cash of at least $1,000,000 to even bid and that still does not entitle you to an evening show invite. (The day shows are a little more lenient).

The event that is going to fire lose tonight is the "Carte Blanche" Auction at Philips de Pury & Company. An auction curated by the famous art adventurer Philip Segalot (also famous for his vibrant hairdo). This event will actually be part of the Auction houses history, since this will be the first ever curated auction show, and surely not the last.

Maurizio Cattelan

Charlie

Est. $2,000,000- $3,000,000
Sold at: 2,994,500

 Jean-Michel Basquiat

Self Portrait, 1982

Est. $4,000,000-6,000,000
Sold At: 4,562,500

It was breathtaking to walk into Philips de Pury on Saturday. Right away you sense the amount of great quality Art that is being presented. The buzz and the excitement was filling up the big open rooms where the fashionable "potential" bidders were mingling.

"I have always been interested in the concept of curated sales, where the artworks are selected not for their market value but for their artistic quality, historical importance and coherence within the group. Here I tried to push this idea further by bringing together a small "collection" comprised of my favorite works by my favorite artists. The result is a true self-portrait, a close representation of my life as an art lover, an art collector and an art advisor."

         - Philippe Segalot

 Takashi Murakami

Miss ko2, 1997

Est. $4,000,000-$6,000,000

Sold At: $6,802,500

Yves Klein

SE 161 (1959?)

Est. $700,000-$900,000

Sold At: 1,314,500

Paul McCarthy

Mechanical Pig, 2005

Est. $2,500,000-$3,500,000

Passed

Felix Gonzales-Torres

"Untitled" 1992

Est. $4,000,000-6,000,000
Sold At: 4,562,500

My legally looted Felix Gonzales-Torres.

I had to taste one and I have two left, should they be framed?

Tonight at 6PM the show begins, and if you can't go there in person you can do what I am planing to do, watch it on the internet. Philips de Pury's web site.

With Love

Kristin

A day at Christie´s

I have never actually been at a large Auction House before, so I was kind of nervous going there.
I was wondering if it would be obvious that I am new? Can they smell it? See it in my eyes? Snort at me? Will they know I am only there to check it out and not to buy? I had all this thoughts in my head while I was getting off the Subway at Rockefeller Center and walking into Christie´s.
But, I did not need to worry, it was an extremely relaxed atmosphere. Here they are dealing with millions of dollars on a daily basis, but the staff just walked around calm and friendly and I, I was just one of all the others there.
Luckily I came right when they were holding an Auction session and I got to sit through a "Prints and Multiples" sale. I will here dwell on the Andy Warhol sale. The highest sale was the "Mickey Mouse"(from myths) for $110,500 (182/200). The second most popular was a green version of the Marilyn for $80,500. It had an estimate between $40,000-$60,000.  And then there is the soup can, it never stops surprising.

"

"Tomato" from Campbell´s soup I, numbered 78/250 sold for $74,500. Way over Christie´s estimate of $20,000-$30,000. 

I just wish I could have heard the comment from the Auctioneer. He was saying something like "Oh,wow" and grinned. The Auctioneer actually reminded me of the actor William H. Macy. It was also interesting to look at the big bidders in the room (a lot of the sales happened over the phone or on the internet) they all sat like wallflowers as close to the back wall as possible, like they would be less visible there?

Flowers (Sold for $15,000, one edition out of 300 and within its estimate)

I guess this just proves that Warhol´s popularity just keeps going on....Even for the Prints and the Multiples. I would love to go and check out the original sale next time, then we can talk about "Real" money!